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A Gentle Madness. Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

BASBANES, Nicholas Third Printing. octavo, cloth in dust jacket. 638 pp. Henry Holt, From the prospectus: "The passion to possess books has never been more widespread or popular than it is today; indeed, obsessive book collecting remains the only hobby to have a disease named after it. A Gentle Madness is an adventure among the afflicted. Richly anecdotal and fully documented, it combines the perspective of historical research with the immediacy of investigative journalism. Above all, it is a celebration of books and the people who have revered, gathered, and preserved them over the centuries. Basbanes, a dedicated bibliophile himself, begins his extraordinary book 2, 500 years ago in Alexandria, when a commitment was made to gather all the world's knowledge beneath one roof. In a series of lively chapters, the continuum then passes through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the 20 th Century, with special emphasis on book lore and book culture in Great Britain and North America. In the second half of A Gentle Madness, Basbanes offers a gallery of revealing profiles of living collectors and presents exclusive examinations of the great contemporary stories - the rare book thefts of Stephen Blumberg; 'institutional bibliomania' at the University of Texas; the mystery man who used $17 million of another person's money to gain recognition as the greatest book collector alive." Extensively illustrated. A very fine, clean, bright copy.
  • $35
Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography

Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography

GRISSOM, C. Edgar First Edition. quarto, cloth in dust jacket. 560 pp. + DVD-ROM. Oak Knoll Press, Descriptive bibliography of American writer Ernest Hemingway, documenting his work from 1923 through 2009. Provides edition, printing, issue, state, location, and description of all printings, editions, parent editions, plays, interviews, television productions, and films. Illustrated and indexed. DVD-ROM with more than 2,000 color illustrations, including more than 50 images of Hemingway's signature from 1908 to 1960. "And if your pulse quickens upon hearing that a new edition or printing or state has been discovered, then you should stop reading this review and lay hands on this new bibliography. You will find C. Edgar Grissom's Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography to be the welcome product of a persistent and inquiring mind. One gets the sense that he has chased the sometimes confounding details of his tome to their source--or else pursued them as far as we could have possibly followed ourselves, leaving us with a trustworthy reference tool that answers, but also asks, questions.Grissom adds two other major contributions to his descriptions and notes. The first is seven appendices including a chronology of Hemingway's life and signatures, an interpretation of Scribner's copyright page, a glossary of terms, and a selective listing of manuscripts. The second is a DVD-ROM containing lists of blurbs, reviews, epigraphs, interviews, adaptations, keepsakes, anthologies, translations, and more than 2000 color images of jackets, covers, and spines." Albert J. DeFazio, III. The Hemingway Review, vol. 31, no. 2, spring 2012.
  • $210